IST scholar blends tech and inventive expertise to assist construct platform for dancers

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — How can a scholar learning cybersecurity analytics and operations make a constructive change for the skilled ballet business?

Fourth-year Penn State School of Info Sciences and Know-how scholar Eugene Ryoo is doing simply that, after working with a staff of Penn State college students to create a centralized system the place dancers can find auditions, coaching applications, jobs and housing wants.

Ryoo partnered with highschool good friend and Penn State World Campus scholar Rob Fulton, a dancer with the Nevada Ballet Theater who has skilled this hole out there firsthand. Together with Sasha Ahrestani, a fourth-year scholar learning laptop science, they labored to make The Ballet Scout, a subscription database service for dancers, a actuality.

In accordance with Ryoo, The Ballet Scout is just like the Widespread App — an internet platform that school candidates can use to enter normal data corresponding to identify and deal with solely as soon as to use to a number of establishments — however is a centered answer for ballet dancers.

“The aim of the positioning is to assist ballet college students and their mother and father plan out their subsequent profession transfer,” stated Ryoo, who’s pursuing a level in cybersecurity analytics and operations.

He handles points that customers face, such because the fee system and the flexibility to bookmark auditions, applications and job alternatives. He additionally maintains different customary data pages on the positioning.

“I used to be initially supposed to come back on as extra of a cybersecurity analyst, however in observe I’m extra of a developer,” Ryoo stated.

Ryoo joined the challenge, then named Eclaireur, in January 2021 — simply in time for the Bardusch Household IdeaMakers Problem, a pitch competitors hosted by the School of IST throughout Penn State Startup Week. Ryoo’s staff gained first place within the problem, thanks, partially, to mentorship supplied by Elizabeth King, a Penn State alumna who graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in political science in 1979 and retired from Starbucks Corp. as vp of human sources options.

“We received lots of expertise out of creating our challenge for the competitors and dealing with Elizabeth, and in addition lots of buzz,” Ryoo stated. “We additionally received some assist from the faculty and from a contract developer on the front-end stuff.”

Ryoo drew upon his IST classroom experiences, in addition to his drive to work on private tasks, to propel The Ballet Scout ahead.

“My lessons gave me a extremely good baseline stage of data,” Ryoo stated. “But when there was one thing particular, I would wish to exit and do my very own analysis, which I knew find out how to do as a result of the lessons taught us what we would have liked to study.” 

Ryoo attributes his consideration to element and aesthetics of the code to a programming class he took final semester.

“Earlier than this class, I simply thought-about myself kind of like a code monkey,” Ryoo stated. “Mainly, if it really works, it really works and it does not matter how soiled it’s. However the teacher taught us to consider issues like giant issues, after which break them down by way of code.”

As a artistic individual, Ryoo brings his technical ability set to the artistically designed code he writes in addition to to his indie rock band, The Willard Constructing, which has been featured on each Onward State and within the Penn Stater journal.

Ryoo and his three bandmates, fellow Penn State college students Andrew Gustafson and Ryan Keating, and Grant Cheung, Ryoo’s childhood good friend, report their very own demos and carry out locally. Most lately, the band performed at a charitable live performance benefiting THON.

“The musical outlet is basically nice,” Ryoo stated. “In reality, along with the band I’m additionally within the Penn State Glee Membership.”

A State School native, Ryoo grew up surrounded by the alternatives housed on Penn State’s campus, which made him decided to reap the benefits of as a lot as potential and to not miss out.

He has gotten concerned as a studying assistant and a peer tutor on the School of IST, the president of the Audio Engineering Society, and a competitor for the Aggressive Cybersecurity Group, amongst others.

“Being right here and seeing all this stuff you are able to do at Penn State has taught me time administration, find out how to talk, and all these different delicate expertise along with what I am studying at school,” Ryoo stated. 

Editor’s observe: This story is informational in nature and shouldn’t be thought-about an endorsement of any services or products.